Flush valve



April '16, 1935.

w. H. CADWELL EF AL FLUSH VALVE.

Filed July 20, 1932 INVENTORS W'm.'H.Cadwell. BY John on. %$rrn ATTORN 5. One object of the invention is to provide a Patented Apr. 16, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FLUSH VALVE William H. Cadwell and John Ott, New Britain, Conn., assignors to The Beaton & Cadwell Manufacturing Company, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application July 20, 1932, Serial No. 623,518

1 Claim. (01. 137-93) This invention relates to valves, and. more parupon the lower end of said bushing. The sleeve ticularly to a flush valve which will produce the I1 is preferably provided with a plurality of versame period of flush irrespective of the length of tical guiding vanes |8 adapted to slidably flt time the actuatinghandle is pressed down. within the reduced section |2a of the oulet port I2. The bushing l6 has an integral horizontal flange I!) which is threaded on its outer edge.

The space within the upper part of the flush valve is divided into two chambers which will hereinafter be termed the main chamber 28 and the control chamber 2!. The chambers 23 and 2| are separated by means of a flexible diaphragm 22 preferably constructed of rubber. The inner portion of the diaphragm 22 is provided with an enlarged annular depending section 22a which is adapted to be held tightly between the upper flanged bushing l3 and the lower sliding sleeve ll of the main valve, and a portion of said annular section 22a rests upon the top of the rim I5 for normally closing the outlet port |2.

The diaphragm 22 is provided with an outer horizontal annular flange 22b disposed between the top face of an enlarged annular threaded rim 23, forming an integral part of the body l0, and another annular flange 24 forming the integral base of a dome-shaped cover 25. The annular diaphragm rim 22b and the cover flange 24 are properly indexed in relation to the body member ID by means of a pair of dowel pins 26 secured to said cover flanges 24 and adapted to project through corresponding holes in said diaphragm flange 22b into corresponding sockets 2'! formed in the body rim 23.

The dome cover 25 forms the top closure of the control chamber 2|, while the rubber diaphragm 22 forms the bottom closure, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. The dome cover 25 and the diaphragm 22 are both clamped against the top seat of the body rim 23 bymeans of an upper casing member 28 having a depending tapped skirt 29 engaging the threaded rim 23, said casing member 28 having a hexagonal nut 30 integral with its top portion for convenience in manipulation.

In order to permit the release of a small quantity of water from the control chamber 2| to cause the pressure in the main chamber 2% to lift the main valve and start the flushing stream, provision is made of a mushroom head valve unit 3|; This unit 3| comprises a slightly cuppedhorizontal valve head 32 located in the control chamber 2|, a detachable intermediate tubular sleeve bushing 33, and a vertical slidable stem 34 depending from said sleeve bushing member 33. The underside of the valve head 32 is provided with an annular beveled rib 35 adapted to seat flush valve of the above nature which will deliver only a single flush even though the actuating handle is held down continuously or is operated several times in quick succession.

A further object is to provide a flush valve of the above nature having a tiltable mushroomshaped release valve provided with a depending detachable sleeve bushing within which is slidably fitted a valvestem movable relative to said release valve.

A further object is to provide a. flush valve of the above nature which will be simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install and manipulate, fool-proof, compact, ornamental in appearance, and very eflicient and durable in use.

With these and other objects in View there has been illustrated on the accompanying drawing one form in which the invention may be conveniently embodied in practice.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 represents a vertical longitudinal sectional view of a flush valve embodying the invention. v

Fig. 2 is a side view of the flush valve shown on a somewhat reduced scale.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view through the adjusting valve mechanism, the View being taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2. r

Fig. 4 is a separated detail perspective view of the mushroom valve construction.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentarysectional View on a reduced scale, showing the relation of the parts after the actuating handle has been tripped.

This invention is an improvement over the patent application filed August 12, 1930, by H. F. Kelso, Serial No. 474,777. 7

Referring now to the drawing in which like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views, the numeral |0 indicates the body member of the flush valve having a horizontal side inlet port H and a bottom vertical outlet port l2. The'side' inlet port H is adapted to be connected to a water supply pipe, not shown, by means of a threaded nipple 3 and a cooperating coupling nut l4.

The top of the outlet port l2 terminates in a thin interior rim l5 forming a seat for a hollow main valve consisting of an upper flanged bushing l6 and a lower sliding sleeve l'l screwed upon a sealing gasket 36, preferably constructed or" rubber. The gasket 36 is supported upon the upper face of the horizontal flange IQ of the bushing l6 and held in place by a heavy flanged tapped ring 31 screwed upon the threaded outer edge of said flange 9. An adjustable headless set-screw 38 is screwed into the upper part of the valve head 32 and is adapted to strike against the underside of the dome cover when the main valve rises.

As clearly shown in Fig. 4, the underside of the.

valve head is formed with a tapped socket 39 for detachably receiving the upper threaded end of the tubular sleeve bushing 33. The sleeve bushing 33 is provided with a pair of opposed fiat sections 40 to which a wrench may be applied in assembling the valve. The upper part 01' the vertical stem 34 is provided with an integral enlarged head 4| slidably fitted within an interior chamber 42 formed within the sleeve bushing, 33, and said stem 34 is supported by an inturned flange 43 formed at the bottom of said. bushing. Just above the flange 43, the bushing; is provided with a pair of opposed radial apertures 44, and the enlarged head 4| of the stem 34 has. a pair of opposed vertical grooves. 45 which serve to permit the stem 34 to move freely up and down within said bushing 33.

For the purpose of tilting the stem 34 to one side for unseating the mushroom valve 3| and starting the valve in operation, provision is made of a horizontal plunger rod 46 located in alinement with the lower end of the valve stem 34. The rod 46 is slidably fitted within a threaded nipple 41 screwed into a. tapped boss 48, extending laterally from the side of the body member ID. The plunger rod 46 terminates at its outer end in an enlarged piston head 49 which is adapted to slide in a cylinder 50. The piston head 49 is normally pressed against a tiltable head 5| by the influence of a helical compression spring 52 axial- 1y disposed about the plunger rod 46 and confined within the cylinder 5|]. The tiltable head 5| forms part of an operating handle 53 normally lying in a horizontal position, as shown in Fig. 1, and said head 5| is. universally pivoted within a shouldered recess 54 located in back of an inturned end 55 forming the integral front end of a union 56.

By means of this construction, it will be seen that when the handle 53 is swung in any direction, the head 5| will tilt inthe. recess 54, as shown in Fig 5, and cause the plunger rod 43v to slide inwardly and strike against the depending stem 34 causing it to move to one side. This action will unseat the valvehead 32 and start the. flushing stream.

In order to restore the pressure in the control chamber 2| after the flush valve has been operated, provision is made of an adjustable bypass valve plug 51 retained within a lateral hollow boss 58 by means of a threaded ring 59., the adjustment and operation of said plug 51 being fully described in the previous patent to the above inventors, No. 1,657,317. The plug 51 has a central horizontal passage communicating with the main chamber 2.0 and a vertical passage 6| adapted to be selectively joined to a short vertical bleed hole 62 in the body member Hi. The bleed hole 62 leads. into an upper enlarged chamber 63 having a small check, valve plug 64 located at its up per end, within which plug 64 a ball check valve 65 is seated. The ball check valve 65 serves to prevent back siphonage in case the pressure in the inlet port It should fall below normal, but does not interfere with the action of the bypass. The annular flange 24 of thedomedcover 25 is provided with a short horizontal hole 66 leading into the interior of the check valve plug 64 and completes the bypass between the upper control chamber 2| and the lower main chamber 2t.

Operation Whenever it is desired, to operate the flush valve, the handle 53 will be rocked in any desired direction, causing the plunger rod 43 to move in wardly, and strike against the vertical stem 34, rocking the mushroom valve head 32 off of its seat. A. small quantity of water will thus be allowed to escape. from the control chamber 2| reducmg the pressure therein below that existing in the main chamber 20.

The greater pressure below the flexible diaphragm 22 will then quickly force th main valve upwardly off of its seat and will open communicationbetween the inlet port II and the outlet |2. The main valve will be guided within the outlet port I 2 while rising to open position by the vanes l8, and will force the mushroom valve 39 upwardly until the adjustable screw 38 on the top thereof strikes the dome 25 covering the control chamber 3|. The annular rib 35 on the bottom of the valve head 32 will thus be caused to press tightly down upon the gasket 35 on top of the main valve, thereby closing the direct passage between the control chamber 2| and the main chamber 23 through the main valve.

The main valve will remain raised to permit the unrestricted flow of the flushing stream until the pressure in the control chamber- 2! has been restored to normal by the slow leakage of water thereinto from the main chamber 20 through the restricted bypass. Since the pressure in the two chambers will then be equalized, the main valve will then close, due to its weight and the resiliency of the rubber diaphragm 22. The flushing stream will be thereby shut oflf. If the operating handle is held down continuously, the stem 34 will be held up in the position shown in Fig. 5, thus insuring against more than a single flush being made.

While there has been disclosed in this specification one form in which the invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that this form is shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited tothe spec-l-fic disclosure but may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit. In short, the invention includes all the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claim.

Having thus fully described the invention what is claimed as new and for which it is desired to secure Letters Patent is:

In a flush valve, a valve casing having inlet and outlet ports. a movable main valve. adapted to divide said easing into a main chamber and a control chamber, a release valve carried by said main valve for normally forming a seal between said chambers, said release valve having a tapped bottom socket and being tiltable with respect tosaid main valve, said release valve having an adjustable depending threaded sleevev screwed into said tapped socket, said sleeve having a pair of opposite parallel flat vertical faces for permitting it to be turned by a wrench, the bottom of. said sleeve being inturned. to. form an annular seat, a. stem slidably fitted without back-lash within said seat and in liquidrtight: relation therewith, said stem having a cylindrical head provided. with a close sliding fit: within said sleeve; and adapted to rest upon said annular seat, said head having a plurality of vertical peripheral grooves, said sleeve having a plurality of apertures immediately above said inturned seat to permit the free circulation of air and water therethrough and reduce the frictional resistance opposing the free relative movement between said sleeve and said stem, and manually operated means for striking said stem to cause said release valve to rock ofi of its seat on said main valve to operate the flush, whereby said release valve will be positively allowed to close without sticking after the proper interval of flush irrespective of the time which the operating handle is held down.

WILLIAM H. CADWELL. 

